Resume as code // colby.gg

This post is about finally moving my resume to version control. Having my resume managed the same way that everything else I work on is handled reduces mental overhead.

Alternatives Considered

Google Docs

Google Docs was actually how I previously handled things. It works, but I find that I miss VCS and tooling that I’m more familiar with.

Word

Not really a reasonable solution for me.

LaTeX

Actually quite a good solution. I’m just more familiar with Markdown, since that’s what I use almost daily.

The Implementation

Have a Markdown document. Generic small sample below.

MARKDOWN

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# First Last

## Job Title

XXX-XXX-XXXX | blog.url.here | [an@email.fqdn](mailto:an@email.fqdn)

### Job Title, Company Name | StartDate - EndDate

* Did stuff, big measured impact
* Did great things, huge even.
* Massive metrics 10000% improvements

Convert to PDF format. I chose to use md2pdf. I considered other options such as pandoc, but I had better luck with md2pdf.
BASH
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md2pdf resume.md "First_Last_Resume_${DATE}.pdf" md2pdf resume.md "First_Last_Resume_latest.pdf"
Results

Generate an easily accessible link from the repository README.md.

MARKDOWN

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- [Latest Resume PDF](https://gitlab.fqdn/username/resume/-/jobs/artifacts/master/raw/First_Last_Resume_latest.pdf?job=build_resume)

Do it in CI. My current .gitlab-ci.yml on my self-hosted GitLab instance.

YAML

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stages:
  - build

build_resume:
  stage: build
  image: python:3.11
  before_script:
    - pip install md2pdf
  script:
    - DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d)
    - md2pdf resume.md "First_Last_Resume_${DATE}.pdf"
    - md2pdf resume.md "First_Last_Resume_latest.pdf"
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - "First_Last_Resume_*.pdf"
    expire_in: 1 year
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "master"
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG

Conclusion

This approach positions me to have CI jobs check spelling, lint my resume’s Markdown, or implement any other improvements I think of later.